The Flood
by Frostte
Summary: Logan finds himself in the worst possible place in the galaxy as the ship he is on is attacked and overrun by the flood. Giving up all hope, he finds himself in the company of an unlikely ally. Now together they must do everything it takes to escape and destroy this ship. Feel free to use this in one of your stories


**The Flood**

I shrank into my dark little corner with tears running down my cheeks as the complete and utter hopelessness of my situation came crashing down on me. My name? Is Logan. I'm on what's left of a prison-slash-experimentation ship. It was full of people and sangheli, or elites as most call them. The humans and sangheli on the ship were basically part of an enormous splinter group from ONI, the UNSC and the Covenant called The Aegis though some people and sangheli were criminals or Covenant.

I don't know how but the Flood, a parasite that infects a host, reconstructs the body, decays it, and uses it to kill, got on this ship but it did and within, I'm guessing, hours, it overran the ship. As the Flood reconstructs the body, decays it, and uses it to kill, the host is alive and aware, but has no control over what they do; basically a living hell for the infected and the living. Take it from me, I'm living it.

I hadn't seen or heard another living soul ever since this whole thing started. It's a miracle that I'm even alive and I can't remember the last time I slept. Maybe it hasn't been that long, but it sure as hell felt like it. I was holed up in a small room off to the side of a corridor that led into the armory. I've been trying to work up the nerve to get up and open the door, but…the sounds coming from within…I don't know if it'd be better to leave it and go or to just stay here until I starve. For the first few hours, I had hoped that I'd run into someone else or that others were holed up somewhere keeping the Flood at bay, but, I doubt it. The entire ship has gone dark, the lights hardly work, and those that do are only emergency lights that cast a deathly glow on everything.

In here, the darkness is your enemy, the light is your enemy, sound is your enemy, and silence is your enemy. If you're lucky enough to find a gun, you might survive longer or shorter, depending on how much you use it. If you can find a silencer and a gun, you might just ride out this entire thing until help arrives. If it ever does. If you can find another living breathing person that you can trust with your life, then you're the luckiest person on this entire ship.

As I sat there thinking, I became aware of shallow rasping breathing. I froze. It was coming from down the corridor. I put my hand over my mouth to keep from uttering a sound. My heart was pounding. Sweat beaded my forehead. I could now make out a quiet stomping accompanying the breathing. I waited for what seemed an eternity for the thing to pass. As the sounds got louder, my heart got faster, I swear it was as loud as an alarm bell. Soon enough a dark smooth-skinned foot stepped out ahead of me in the corridor, then the body followed. It was an elite! As I watched it from my corner, I noticed it was holding its side, purple blood seeping through its fingers. It had been hurt._ She_ had been hurt. I'd heard stories before that if you were wounded by the Flood in any way, you would turn, eventually.

The elite stumbled in front of my little alcove and dropped to her knees, breathing heavily. She took her hand off her wound and looked at it with grim eyes. Then she took a breath and stood up again. She continued slowly towards the door to the armory.

_Fuck._ I thought. If she opened that door, not only would it most likely let the Flood be even more free to roam around the ship, with heavy weapons, but we'd both get torn to shreds. I battled with myself on whether I should try to stop her. As I watched her fingers begin typing on the keypad, I came to a conclusion. I would rather take a chance allying with an injured, and possibly turning elite, than dying to the Flood.

I didn't know how to get her attention without making it very loud, so I steeled myself and quietly whispered, "Hey." My word came out as more of a gurgle than an actual word. The elite froze with her finger hovering above the keypad. I tried again, "Hey." She turned slowly around, looking down the corridor. I raised my hand, kinda, and did a little, uh, wave I guess you could call it. The elite still remained glued to the floor. My breathing was quickening as I moved out of the shadowy alcove and into the corridor. The elite looked at me for a second then made a motion. She brought her right hand, in a fist, over onto her left deltoid, then from there, she put two fingers in the middle of her forehead, and finished with a wave. It was a code, a question. I reversed the gesture as relief rushed through me.

I pointed at her wound and whispered, "How bad is it?"

She looked at her hand-covered wound, "Not good," she whispered back.

I noticed something with some surprise, "Your, uh, you…don't have any clothes…"

She cast her head down, "Thanks for the obvious. Any idea where I could get some?"

"Fortu—_Un_fortunately, no." I said and threw my overcoat to her.

She looked at it doubtfully, "An overcoat? You realize they don't have legs right."

"Well," I said slightly sarcastically "I guess you could walk around stark naked if you wanted."

"Good point," she said, and put it on. The coat covered her chest but did little to cover anything else

"I'm Logan."

"Neera."

"Where were you going?"

"I was hop-" Neera was cut off by the sudden scratching and gurgling sounds coming from down the corridor. I waved for Neera to follow quickly and moved as silently as possible to the little alcove I was in earlier. It had a few boxes and crates to hide behind. Unfortunately there was only one corner that was out of the light. Neera moved to the corner and pulled me out of the light with her. She squished herself as far into the corner as she could and held me close with her dark hands covering my white face. I could tell that she in no way wanted to stay like this for long, and I didn't blame her.

The thing came into view. It looked to be slightly human, other than the fact that it was bent backwards, with its right clawed arm extended forward, its feet that were pointed in the wrong directions, and its sort of limping walk. Those who had encountered Flood before called this thing the Ripper because it had a bad habit of not staying dead and ripping the skin from your bones. As the Ripper moved closer, Neera's hands tightened unconsciously. I moved my hand as slow as I could towards her arm to see if I could get her to loosen her grip, otherwise, my eyes might pop out. I tapped her arm gently, and her hands loosened. The Ripper stopped directly in front of our alcove and just stood there.

Seconds passed, almost 10 minutes passed with the Ripper still standing there, then it turned, towards us. It started stalking towards our little corner. My heart skipped a beat or two and I could feel Neera's heart hammering. As the thing limped towards us, my hands formed fists, turning my knuckles even whiter and I could feel Neera's muscles tensing. The thing got closer and my right arm got higher, ready the deck it in its face. The Ripper got within 2 feet, Neera's hands slid off my face, and my fist smashed the Ripper in _its_ face. The Ripper's head caved and it stumbled back and I followed through with a left hook to its ribs then Neera was there. Standing tall, she grabbed the Ripper by the head and smashed it into the wall…repeatedly, until it was just goo in her hand, then she dropped it.

I turned towards her, "Well, I think ya got it." I must've jinxed myself, because at that moment, the Ripper decided that it wasn't dead. As it stood, it threw its clawed-arm through the lower right side of my back, and out the right side of my chest, before tearing it out. I spun and dropped to the floor, clutching my chest. Neera's fist shot out like a rocket sending the Ripper flying into the wall once more. She followed through with a kick to its chest, where her foot sank almost completely into its decayed flesh and bone. As Neera continued her onslaught of punches, kicks, and throws, I did my best to crawl out of the way. As I made it to the corridor I could hear more screeches and howls coming from the same way that the Ripper came from.

Blood dripping from my mouth, back, and chest I pulled myself up using the wall to lean on, "Neera," I gurgled, "we gotta go!" Neera glanced at me, threw one last punch at the walking blob of goo, that was once the Ripper, and ran to the armory door. She punched in the last few numbers just as the Flood came into view. I coughed my lung empty of blood and ran. Neera followed and closed the door right as the Flood reached it. As they beat and hammered on the door, Neera and I were bee-linin' it through the armory grabbing anything we could: ammo, weapons, explosives, whatever. I could feel my lung filling with blood again and my back was screaming. I did my best to keep up with Neera but, soon enough, I was coughing blood continually, and slowing down. Neera did her best to encourage me, but, encouraging or not, I couldn't keep up the pace forever.

I chanced a look over my shoulder and could see the Flood a ways back, and a trail of blood leading straight to me.

"Neera," I rasped, "I've gotta stop. Keep goin', I'll hold em off!" As I slowed I pulled out the two pistols I'd grabbed from the armory.

Neera stopped and turned to me, "But—"

"Go, Neera! Now!" I turned to face the Flood, pistols raised.

"Logan, they'll kill you!"

I did not turn to face Neera for fear that she'd see my tears and stay, "I'm already dead! You saw what that thing did to me; all I am is a ticking time bomb. You're better off without me! Now GO!"

"But—"

"NOW DAMN IT!" Neera stayed for a second more before turning and continuing down the corridor. She glanced back once, a tear escaping her blue-green ocean eye, then she was gone.

As the Flood neared, I opened fire, .357 modified high-velocity armor-piercing slugs tearing into their decaying flesh and bone. As the front line fell, the Flood behind stumbled losing some speed. I backed up, slamming fresh clips into place, and opening fire once more. As my ammo dwindled I could hear more Flood coming from side passages and air vents. I dropped my pistols and pulled out my assault rifle. I glanced left and saw a maintenance corridor. I fired off a couple rounds and sprinted painfully into the corridor dropping a grenade behind me, hearing it explode brought a grim smile to my face. I turned once more to find that the Flood were…gone. Now, if you think that getting chased by hundreds of undead monsters is scary, imagine what it's like to be in a pitch black corridor, knowing they're there somewhere but being unable to see them. I watched the entrance to the corridor for a few seconds before inching forwards. I peered out into the main walkway to find it completely empty. One thought ran through my mind: _Neera_.

I ran lopsidedly back to the armory and grabbed some ammo, and a whole lot of adrenaline and stims. After jabbing a few of the needles into my side, I ran for the way that Neera went, feeling my pain subside. With every corner that I rounded, my hope dwindled, with no sign of Neera…or the Flood. I don't know how long I ran but, after maybe an hour, I still didn't feel any pain in my back. I slowed to look at my chest in the dim light. What I saw tore all hope from my soul. Where the Ripper's claw had gone through my chest, the blood that had collected had started turning to a disgusting greenish-red color. I was starting to change. As I realized this new development, I was becoming aware of another new thing. Thoughts were running through my head, thoughts that weren't mine. Thoughts of anger. Anger at Neera for not listening to me the first time. Anger at her for letting me get hurt in the first place. Anger at her _for_ listening to me, she should've stayed with me. I mean that's what friends do right? They stick with each other. They help each other. I locked onto that though and didn't let go. They _help_ each other. I fought with myself, battling thoughts of anger. _C'mon Loe, you're _helping_ Neera. She's done nothing. Nothing wrong. Keep it together, man._ I thought to myself. I didn't realize it, but as I was fighting with myself, the greenish goo had started to melt off onto the floor, and red blood, _my_ blood replaced it. It hurt like hell, but it was far better than believing that I'd turn. I smashed another stim and adrenaline shot into my side. Almost immediately I felt better. I pushed forwards, with one goal in mind: Find Neera. I remembered how Neera had stumbled in front of my little alcove when I had met her. She had been hurt by the Flood too, and it was clear that she had been hurt long before she got to the armory. Question was, did she turn or not? I pushed those thoughts out of my head and pressed forward.

After about another hour of running through empty corridors, I began to have those thoughts again. As I stopped once more to do battle with myself I noticed a discolored spot on the floor. I leaned closer and realized it was blood, _purple_ blood. I touched it; it was still really wet, not sticky. She was close. Seeing this did not help my thoughts, unfortunately. As hellishly wrong ideas ran through my head, I figured something out. Stims were a painkiller, most painkillers suppress the immune system at least a little, and adrenaline makes you faster and stronger, making your blood pump faster. So with my immune system falling asleep, the Flood's influence was growing, and with my blood pumping faster, it was reaching more of my body faster.

I dumped my bag of stims and adrenaline and crushed them. I don't know where but somewhere along the line, I had picked up a marker, I wrote on the wall just above the pile of broken stims and adrenaline what I had just figured out, hoping that if anyone else was still alive, they'd be able to take that and spread it. I continued at a much slower pace than before, doing my best to be quiet, and not agitate my wound. I was still following the blood trail though it was getting cold. As I checked the blood marks they got increasingly drier. I was losing her. I redoubled my efforts forgetting about being quiet, and doing my best to forget about the bloody pain in my chest and back.

As I continued on my merry little way, once more, the blood trail I was following was growing warm again. Either Neera was slowing down or I was really tough, my bet was on the first. In the dark I noticed the walls had turned whiter, I was in the medical wing; I was well acquainted with this place; Neera must've went into one of the med rooms to get stitched up. Room after dark room went by with no sign of Neera. Then I noticed something, I don't know how but I did, a slight, almost imperceptible light coming from underneath a door. I moved closer to the door and put my ear against it. I could hear the nearly silent machinery inside. As happy as I was, I couldn't just barge in; it could be a trap, or the person inside, if there was one, might blow another hole in me. I tapped out a pattern lightly on the door. If there was an Aegis inside, I would hear the same thing in reverse. I paused once and repeated the pattern again and paused, listening. After a few seconds I heard the same pattern in reverse. I tapped out another pattern on the door and heard then it repeated back. The light inside turned off, and the door opened. There she was: Neera. She took one look at me and yanked me inside. I suppressed a shout of agony, to a grunt.

"Easy there," I whispered, "I'm still not any better than before."

"I thought you were dead." Neera whispered back. I could tell there were tears hiding in her eyes.

"Hey, hey…it's alright." I whispered gently. Me being slightly taller than she was, I wrapped her in a left-handed hug. She stood for a second, before burying her head in my left shoulder and crying silently. You may be wondering how I got to be so tall, if so, then this is why: since this is an experimentation ship, I was experimented on; they were trying to make soldiers as strong as the elites and so they figured out a way to put Elite DNA into humans, making them as tall as elites, but not as strong as them, so there ya have it.

"It's alright. No more heroic moments, we stick together. No matter what, okay?"

Neera pulled back, "How did you make it here?" As I told her of my mad dash to get here, something started to dawn on me: I hadn't seen or heard any Flood since I ran out of that maintenance corridor, and my run had taken hours. They were following me. While this thought roiled around in my head, Neera had gone back to shut the door. I turned just in time to see a Flood elite, a Bonebreaker, poke its head around the corner, and reach for Neera. Time seemed to slow down as the Flood's hand reached for her. I lunged for Neera, grabbed her just in the nick of time, threw her away from the door and kicked it shut. The Bonebreaker outside screamed.

"Neera we gotta go!" I yelled against the screaming of the Flood, "There, through that air vent! Don't worry, I'll be right behind you!"

Neera looked at me, "You first!"

"What? Neera we don't have time for this!"

"That's right, so don't argue! You go first!" I hesitated for one second before running over to the cover, ripping it off, and jumping inside. Neera grabbed the vent cover and I grabbed her. Before she could even _think_ of staying behind, I yanked her, agonizingly, inside, she pulled the cover back on and we were crawling for our lives in no time. As we fumbled around in the darkness, thumping our heads on every conceivable corner, the vent seemed to end. I pushed left, right, forward, bottom, then up. That was the way to go I stood but I still couldn't reach the top.

"Neera," I called, "c'mere, this part's too high for me to reach, I'm gonna lift you up and see if you can reach, okay?" With the Flood hot on our heels she obeyed.

"Just, promise me you won't look up, until I call." She said as she stepped on my intertwined hands. I realized that she still only had my overcoat on, so I did my best not to look, it was difficult, but I managed it somehow. As she put her weight on my hands, my shoulder and back screamed and bled, and I felt like I was drowning. I gritted my teeth against the pain.

"I have to jump, get ready!" Neera called. I steeled myself for the inevitable lance of pain, but nothing could've prepared me for what I felt. As Neera jumped, my right side collapsed of its own accord. I let out a shout and braced myself against a falling Neera that never came.

"Logan, give me your hand!" I looked up and saw Neera a ways up holding her hand out to me. I hauled myself to my feet and jumped. Not high enough. I looked around for no reason other than to reassure myself that there was no other way up. I still had my assault rifle…no, we stick together, no matter what. I backed up as far as I could, ran and jumped onto and off of the vent wall. I swung my arm around desperately to grab Neera's hand, and found it. She grabbed a hold, held tight and pulled me up, just as the Flood reached the bottom of the vent. The vent was wider up here and we could almost stand up completely.

"I think this is just about the only time I wish I was as short as you humans!" Neera said, thumping her head on the top of the vent. As we crouched through the vent, I was constantly coughing blood out of my lung.

"Neera, I-I have to slow down!" I said as I coughed out more blood.

"Hold on just a little longer!" Neera called back, "I think I see a vent cover we can drop out of!"

I heard bullets clanking into the metal walls as we were moving.

"Damn it! Logan, what's happening?!"

"It appears," I stated drunkenly, feeling light headed, "that they know how to use guns."

"Logan? Logan!" I had started to slack off considerably, as Neera turned her eyes popped open wide as dinner plates. I saw her features, rolled onto my back as shadows encroached on my mind, and pulled the trigger on my assault rifle. As my bullets smashed the Flood creature above me, it smashed into the vent ceiling. I emptied my entire clip into the other Flood behind it, as I dragged myself away. I felt a soft pressure on my left arm and turned to see Neera's hand. I felt myself being pulled from the clutches of the flood. Fighting two battles, one with the shadows in my mind and one with the shadows in the vent, I struggled to reload and finally succeeded just to hear a vent cover slide off and feel myself falling. Neera landed on her feet and I landed on her. I rolled off, she jumped up, and the Flood flew down. Neera grabbed me under my arms and pulled me towards a door as I opened fire, wildly, at the Flood. The last thing I remember, at least, for a while, was being pulled into a dark room, lifted up, and Neera saying, "Hang in there, Logan."


End file.
